Have you ever wondered who calls the shots when it comes to Tarantino’s famous music choices? Daria Sukharchuk found out for herself when she met Tarantino’s music supervisor Mary Ramos at a SPOT seminar yesterday. She finds out what it means to be a music supervisor and what it’s like to work with Mr. Tarantino himself.
Written by Daria Sukharchuk. Jutland Station.
Yesterday, the Radisson held a series of seminars for music professionals. It started in the early afternoon with a talk by four music supervisors from different industries: independent film, advertising and television. Most of the talks consisted of recommendations to music producers and band managers, going into details about different kinds of music: dramatic, but non-explicit for TV, optimistic for commercials, etc.
The following 45 minutes see the room pack out with people expecting to hear Mary Ramos, the music supervisor for Tarantino’s films, most notably for “Kill Bill” I + II, “Pulp Fiction”, “Inglorius Basterds”, “Jackie Brown” and “Django Unchained.” We start with a 10-minute show-reel of her work: a spectacular mix of Tarantino’s films with some of the best known songs.
Mary spends just few seconds summing up the beginning of her career and describes how she became a music supervisor because of Tarantino, and they’ve been working together ever since.
The work of a music supervisor consists, mainly, of copyright clearance. It’s a bit like being a detective: the supervisor has to track down singers and other copyright holders, and then negotiate with them. One might think that anyone would be happy to give their music to Tarantino ‒ but it’s not always the case. “Do you remember ‘Girl, you’ll be a woman soon’? ‒ well, the singer wasn’t happy that it would play in a scene with drugs”.
According to Mary, Tarantino’s really into music and he listens to it when he’s writing his scripts. For him it’s essential, it’s really one of the film’s characters ‒ so the supervisor’s work starts early at the pre-production stage ‒ and ends way after the film is released.
The director usually works with known music ‒ but not always. “I remember when he came to me with a video tape of some Japanese family show, telling me that he wants to use “that piece in the background”. “If you want him to listen to your music ‒ record it on a cassette, write a label by hand and send it to him ‒ with a handwritten letter enclosed. I know it’s a long shot ‒ but who knows..!”.
Moments like this constitute the hardest part of the music supervisor’s work: it can involve everything, from calling every Gomez in Minnesota to get in touch with a songwriter, to recording a song from a 40’s film in French to fit into “Inglorious Bastards”. “I’m a full-service music supervisor ‒ so in this sense, I’m a bit of a control freak. I have to do it all myself” ‒ comments Mary. “Django Unchained” was an exclusion: several songs were written specifically for it
Audience member: Do you plan to begin an independent career?
Yes… well, I studied acting and directing, so I’d like to direct something myself one day.
Jutland Station: If you directed your own film, would music play the role as big as in Tarantino films?
Yes, Quentin has taught me a lot. In fact, I’d like to direct a musical, with the actors just dropping everything and singing in the middle of action!
Talking more seriously, however, Mary remembers “Dancing in the Dark” ‒ in her opinion, it is a remarkable example of image and music working together.
When asked tentatively about Tarantino’s next project, Mary doesn’t reveal anything ‒ but one thing we can be sure about is that we’ll get to hear a couple of new hits.
Daria Sukharchuk is a Russian journalist, who has worked as a freelance journalist for Moscow-based online magazines W-O-S and Edutnaime. Photo by Daria Sukharchuk
This article was produced independently by Jutland Station.
